May 09--Here's an impressive figure: 852,000.
That's how many copies Drake sold of his new album, "Views," during its first week on sale -- enough by a wide margin to give the Canadian rapper his sixth straight No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, according to the trade magazine. The number also reflects the biggest single-sales week for any album released so far in 2016, including Beyonc駳 "Lemonade," which moved 485,000 copies in its debut week.
Hold up, though, because here's a really impressive figure: 245 million.
That's how many times tracks from "Views" were streamed in the album's first seven days of availability -- a record, said Billboard, which noted that the set's streaming total more than doubled that of the previous record-holder, "Lemonade," which had 115 million streams in a similar period.
"Views'" streams amounted to 163,392 of what Billboard calls "streaming equivalent albums." That means the album's official first-week tally, as reflected on the Billboard 200, is 1.04 million equivalent album units.
Behind "Views," "Lemonade" came in at No. 2 on this week's chart with 321,000 units, followed by two titles by the late Prince: the "Purple Rain" soundtrack at No. 3 and "The Very Best of Prince" at No. 4. Rounding out the top 5 was "Anti" by Rihanna.
Twitter: @mikaelwood
